User blog:Blahbumian/Christmas and New Year's message
The holidays are a time of joy, unity and giving. It is a time when we come together, regardless of which religious beliefs we hold and which holiday we celebrate. We try to see the world in a positive light and try to keep negativity away from us as possible. That's why I wanted to share this message with you; believe it or not, but today's world has never been better. If you watch the news today, it may seem like we live in a horrendous world. Wars everywhere, people killing each other, terrorist attacks and other terrible things. The media tries to convince everybody that our world today is the worst place ever. But here's the reality; The world has NEVER been more peaceful. Statistics prove that war is at record lows, crime is going down at record levels and the standard and quality of living has never been higher. Not only that, but people are more accepting than ever; discrimination based on race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc. has never been lower, and people have never been more respectful and accepting toward those who are different. Also, if you happen to live in the U.S or Canada, or any other developed country, you've won the lottery. We are so lucky to live in the 21st century in a country which guarantees us food, shelter, human rights and so much more. Let's make sure to never forget that. Of course, the media will never, EVER, tell you this. It's much easier to control people when there is so much negativity and fear. But take a look at this article I stumbled upon in the news today; http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/the-world-is-much-better-than-it-seems/article27923750/ The world has never been a better place. Since New Year's is coming up, I have two New Year's resolutions; 1. Try to see the positive in the world. As you can see, we live in the best world ever. We should enjoy it and cherish it as much as we can. 2. Try my best to stop prejudice. I've noticed there's been a lot of hate and prejudice lately in the world, especially this year. History has shown us that prejudice can be a scary and dangerous thing. We should remember that all people are equal and are not to be judged by their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, etc. One thing that inspired me is Queen Elizabeth II's Christmas speech this year, which encouraged to spread love, not hate, to others. http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/world/queen-christmas-message-2015-1.3379246 Now, unfortunately, ZT has a history of prejudice. It's not that long ago where some ZT users made disrespectful movies to other users because of their beliefs, such as in that riot 2009 when some Christian users made disrespectful movies to non-Chrstian users/atheists, and vice versa. In fact, there was a moment on Xat during December 2010 when I was chatting with several ZT users and I told them that I didn't celebrate Christmas, to which they responded by angrily flooding the chat with comments demanding how DARE I not celebrate the birthday of Jesus, and how I'm such a sinful and immoral person. I had to explain to them that I'm Jewish and I have a different holiday, Hanukkah, after which they calmed down, at least a little bit. (These people DO realize that not everyone in this world is a Christian, right?) For a little while after that, I was a bit afraid to tell people on ZT that I celebrate a different holiday, because appearantly some ZT users from certain parts of the U.S were religious to the core. I had never seen such overreligiosity, as I was new to the American ZT; I come from Canada which is a lot more secular, and I had been on the Canadian ZT until May 2010 when it closed down. Most of the users on the Canadian ZT didn't make such a huge deal about religion, so obvioisly, this was a huge culture shock for me. Since then, I've seen a few more moments of prejudice on ZT, mostly related on religious beliefs, but luckily, the overall level of prejudice on ZT has significantly decreased. Of course not all American ZT users were so overly religious, and the overwhelming majority were amazing and respectful people. Please don't think that I'm trying to generalize. We're all a bit prejudiced. I am, you are, we all are. It's hard not to be in this scary (or maybe not SO scary) world. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays if you celebrate anything else. But most of all, I wish for us to count our many blessings and be thankful for the amazing world we live in. Let's try to enjoy our great world and to stop our prejudices from controlling us. -Blah :) Category:Blog posts